Vari-Form Honored by FCA US
The award recognizes their manufacturing of upper cross members for the 2015 Jeep Cherokee using proprietary Pressure-Sequence Hydroforming technology.
Posted: June 24, 2015
FCA US LLC (Troy, MI) honored its top-performing suppliers during the company’s Qualitas Annual Strategy Meeting and Supplier Awards Ceremony held recently at the MotorCity Hotel in Detroit.
Vari-Form Corporation (Strathroy, ON) was selected for this honor, having demonstrated top performance in the Supply Chain Management category. Recent projects with FCA US include an upper cross member for the 2015 Jeep® Cherokee, applying proprietary Pressure-Sequence Hydroforming technology. The resulting structure is very lightweight, contributing to a 45 percent increase in fuel efficiency for Cherokee over previous vehicles.
Criteria for selection included achieving the highest levels of performance as measured by the FCA US External Balanced Scorecard. In this year’s case, Vari-Form supply chain management scores ranked first among the nearly 3,600 suppliers measured. All award recipients were evaluated based on each company’s Scorecard performance in 2014, a rating system that evaluates supplier performance in areas such as quality, delivery, cost, warranty and partnership, and input from FCA senior leadership.
“We are pleased to be named a Supplier of the Year by them,” said Doug Viohl, the Vari-Form director of sales and engineering. “This recognition for supply chain management reflects our long-term commitment to excellence in supplier responsibility. We are also honored to be among the select group of automotive suppliers that received the 2015 award for other categories. This year’s list reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of Tier suppliers. Our congratulations to the 16 other companies that were recognized this year.”
Over 1,000 global supplier executives attended the event. The theme of this year’s event, “Quality Makers: Design a Better Way,” was delivered in a presentation by Tom Finelli, the head of North America Group Purchasing at FCA US, and Scott Garberding, the head of group purchasing at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA).
“It is extremely important to us to celebrate the achievements of our suppliers,” said Finelli. “Their success is our success. Our goal is to cultivate a thriving, innovative supply base that shares our values and can grow alongside us.”
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